Stewart Alsop

Stewart Alsop
Personal details
Born Stewart Johonnot Oliver Alsop
May 17, 1914
Avon, Connecticut, U.S.
Died May 26, 1974 (aged 60)
Washington, D.C.
Spouse(s) Patricia Barnard "Tish" Hankey
(m. 1944; his death 1974)
Children 6, including Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop and Stewart Alsop II
Parents Joseph Wright Alsop IV
Corinne Douglas Robinson
Relatives See Roosevelt family
Education Groton School
Alma mater Yale University
Occupation Journalism, writer
Awards Croix de Guerre
Military service
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Battles/wars World War II

Stewart Johonnot Oliver Alsop (May 17, 1914 – May 26, 1974) was an American newspaper columnist and political analyst.

Early life

Alsop was born and raised in Avon, Connecticut, from an old Yankee family.[1] Alsop attended Groton School and Yale University. His parents were Joseph Wright Alsop IV (1876–1953) and Corinne Douglas Robinson (1886–1971). Through his mother, he was a grandnephew of Theodore Roosevelt.

Early career

After graduating from Yale in 1936, Alsop moved to New York City, where he worked as an editor for the publishing house of Doubleday, Doran.[2]

World War II

After the United States entered World War II, Alsop joined the British Army because his high blood pressure precluded his joining the US Army.[3] On June 20, 1944, Alsop married Patricia Barnard "Tish" Hankey (1926-2012), an Englishwoman.

A month after the wedding, Alsop was allowed to transfer to the US Army, and he was immediately sent on a mission planned by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). For the mission, Alsop was parachuted into the Périgord region of France to aid the French Resistance. Alsop was later awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm for his work on that and other wartime missions.[4] Alsop worked with and for the OSS for the rest of the war.

Journalism

From 1945 to 1958, Stewart Alsop was co-writer, with his brother Joseph, of the thrice-weekly "Matter of Fact" column for the New York Herald Tribune. Stewart usually stayed in Washington and covered domestic politics, and Joseph traveled the world to cover foreign affairs. In 1958, the Alsops described themselves as "Republicans by inheritance and registration, and... conservatives by political conviction."[5]

After the Alsop brothers ended their partnership, Stewart went on to write articles and a regular column for the Saturday Evening Post until 1968 and then a weekly column for Newsweek from 1968 to 1974.

He published several books, including a "sort of memoir" of his battle with an unusual form of leukemia, Stay of Execution. He wrote, "A dying man wants to die like a sleepy man wants to sleep." At the end of his battle with cancer, he requested that he be given something other than morphine to numb the pain because he was tired of its sedative effect. His doctor suggested heroin.

Family

On June 20, 1944, Alsop married Patricia Barnard "Tish" Hankey (1926-2012), whom he met while training in England, where she lived.[6] Together, they had six children: Joseph Wright Alsop VI; Ian Alsop; Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop, a children's book author; Stewart Alsop II, an investor and pundit; Richard Nicholas Alsop, a missionary with FamilyLife; and Andrew Alsop.

Legacy

In Avon, Connecticut, there is a 53-acre (210,000 m2) public park that is named Alsop Meadows in his honor.

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ↑ Robert W. Merry (1997). Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop, Guardians of the American Century. Penguin Group. p. 4.
  2. ↑ Merry, Robert W. Taking on the World : Joseph and Stewart Alsop—Guardians of the American Century. New York: Viking, 1996. 70.
  3. ↑ Merry, 105.
  4. ↑ Merry, 118–120.
  5. ↑ Alsop, Joseph and Stewart Alsop. The Reporter's Trade. New York: Reynal & Company, 1958. Foreword.
  6. ↑ Merry, 118.

Sources

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